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Storm erupts over publishing of HeLa genome

SHE died in 1951, but her cells live on around the world. Now a storm has erupted over access to her genome.

HeLa cells, taken without consent from cervical cancer tissue from a US woman called Henrietta Lacks, are among the world’s most studied human cell lines. Last month a team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, published the HeLa genome but neglected to inform or ask Lacks’s family members. Not surprisingly, they objected, arguing that it reveals their genetic traits.

EMBL has withdrawn the data and apologised to the family. The team acknowledges that the genome of the cancer cells could be used to make predictions about Henrietta Lacks’s genome and those of her descendants. But they point out that the cancer tissue is genetically different, limiting what can be deciphered about the genetic make-up of Lacks and her relatives.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Cancer cell genome sparks row”